Some of the Common Types of Honey Bee found in India

Honey bee belongs to the class Insecta, order hymenoptera and family apidae. There are five well recognised types of bees found in the world.

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(i) Apis dorsata (Rock bee)

(ii) Apis florea (Little bee)

(iii) Apis indica (Indian bee)

(iv) Apis mellifica (European bee)

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(v) Apis adamsoni (African bee)

Out of these five types, three are common in India. They are Apis dorsata, Apis florea and Apis indica.

Apis dorsata, which is commonly called as rock bee, is the largest Indian variety with an average size of about 20 m.m. It builds large comb (0.90 x 15 metres) on tree branches, under caves, or under roofs of high buildings. They are migratory species as during June and July they swarm to the hills, but in winter come back to the plains. They have been found up to the height of 3,500 feet above sea level.

This variety is yet to be successfully hived. Researchers are going on, on the behaviour of this variety in order to domesticate them. This variety has the highest honey yield (average 15 kg. per colony per year) amongst Indian bees. Sometimes, the yield exceeds 30 kg. per colony per year. This bee is notorious for its ferocity and tendency to make unprovoked, sometimes fatal, mass attack on persons who approach its hive.

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Apis florea, which is commonly called as little bee, is a miniature of the rock bee. It is a plain species and rarely occurs above 1000 feet of sea level. It builds small comb (about 15.24 cms. across) on the branches of trees, or in bushes, or under the wall of the buildings. The yield of honey from this type is very little (few ounces per colony per year), and the production does not compensate the labour undergone on it.

Apis-indica, popularly known as Indian bee, is of commonest occurrence on the plains and forests of India. There are several regional strains of it, of which plain, transitional and hill varieties are three recognised types. Picea strain is found in hills at an altitude up to 7,000 ft, Pironi is distributed along the transition between altitudes of 3,000 to 4,000 ft. whereas, and Lighter indica is a plain strain found up to an altitude of 1,500 ft. It builds several parallel combs (about 30 cms across) in protected places like hollow of trees, caves, in rocks and in other such cavities.Due to their mild nature and average output of honey between 3 kg. to 5 kg. per colony per year, they are amongst the best of the Indian variety to be hired in artificial conditions.

Apis mellifica or European bee is very common all over the Europe. This bee is similar to Apis indica in its habitates. There are several varieties and strains of this bee amongst them the Italian variety is the best. It yields an average of 100 to 400 lbs. of honey per year per colony. Attempts to domesticate this been in India on large scale has yet not been proved to be a success.

The yield of honey from Indian bees is quite poor compared to their Italian or South African counter-parts. The South African yield of 100 kg. per hive is about twelve times more than the Indian average of 4.5 kg. per hive per year. Cross breeds have developed and experiments are going on at Palampur campus of the Punjab Agricultural University. The crosses between Indo- Italian swarms have yielded 51 kg. of honey per hive. But all these are in experimental conditions and at present we can only hope for a brighter future in the field of apiculture.